Halloween Spammers Unleash Onslaught Of Phony Offers

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As Halloween draws near, online crooks are preparing an onslaught
of spam, hoping to dress up their evil software in attractive
costumes and trick you into infecting your computer.

The Halloween-themed emails promise free or discounted pirated
copies of more than 500 enticing products, including Microsoft
Windows 7 and Office 2010 and software from Adobe, Corel and
Kaspersky Lab. Spotted by researchers at the security firm
Bitdefender, many of the offending emails are titled
"Halloween sale," and come "adorned with images of pumpkins and
witches" to complete the spooky vibe, Bitdefender's global
research director Catalin Cosoi said.

Downloading pirated software puts you at risk. The knock-off
products, Cosoi wrote, are often vulnerable to exploits because
they don't receive the same updates and patches as legitimate
software.

These offers aren't the only
tricks up spammers' sleeves this Halloween, Cosoi said.
Bitdefender has seen phony, malware-laden emails shilling
everything from candy and Halloween costumes to $250 gift
vouchers, ink, flowers and pornography.

The security firm has also seen greeting cards that lure you into
clicking on a link to read them; if you do, what you thought was
a holiday card turns out to be a nightmare for your computer,
dropping dangerous malware onto your machine that can allow an
attacker to take
control of your system.

To keep your computer healthy this Halloween, be skeptical of any
special offers you receive through unsolicited emails or social
networks like Facebook and Twitter. Be careful when clicking on
links, especially
shortened URLs ; they are a favorite tool for online crooks
looking to redirect you to compromised websites. Never install
software from an untrusted source, and always make sure you're
running up-to-date anti-virus software on your computer to detect
threats before they can get to you.